Hey, Charlie, sounds like good clean fun. I wish I could join up...
There will be tons of stuff to do next month in the southern latitudes and at lower elevations. As tempting as it might be to try to see the whole country or do one big route, I would mix it up in the southwest. Hit a chunk of the AZT and other great singletrack areas nearby like Sedona and around Phoenix and Tucson. South Mountain in Phoenix has your technical ST covered
The divide from Cuba NM or Grants NM going south is good with minimal elevation/high passes.
November being the shoulder, you'll just have to see what happens and decide how much potential snow (and mud and wind) you want to deal with at higher elevations, but the SW desert will be prime, and I would have a hard time leaving that to go suffer somewhere else. Southern CA, AZ, NM, NV, UT... I would not leave those states at all in November.
Have fun planning!
